CoraBelle and Hud walked in, looking put-upon. They'd shifted to go search for her, but now everybody was coming back in.
"Oh. You found her," CoraBelle said, her voice flat.
"All that work for nothing," Hud said in annoyance. "Come along, dear – I think the shops in Silver Peak are still open."
As they left, Nelda pushed past them and rushed in.
"Where did you go? What did you do, you foolish child?" Nelda said to Teddy, blinking back tears.
"I was walking into Juniper, but I got turned around. I went to get you a Christmas present. Since you got me one," Teddy said. "That's what you're supposed to do."
"Oh." Nelda cleared her throat and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "My allergies are acting up. Must be all the dirty people here." She blinked hard at Arthur. "Aren't these the dirtiest people you've ever seen, Arthur?"
He nodded. "I expect so, ma'am." He put his arm around her shoulders, and again she looked surprised but didn't move away. She stood there for a while, dabbing at her eyes and composing herself. Then she threw her arms around him and gave him a long, hard hug. Valerie exchanged a look of shock with Morgan. She had never pictured Nelda as a hugger.
"Thank you for finding her, Arthur," Nelda murmured.
"Any time, ma'am."
"You can just call me Nelda," she said, not meeting his gaze.
Then she scowled down at Teddy. "Young lady, trying to go to town by yourself was just silly. You must never do that again. In fact, you're coming back to our house, where I can keep an eye on you. And furthermore, I am giving you a very long, hot bath. And new clothes."
Teddy looked down at her overcoat, the hem of which was sodden and blackened from dragging in the dirt and snow. "What's wrong with these clothes?"
"Don't get me started. Let's go," Nelda said. She glanced at a Juniper police officer who'd been standing by with the paramedic.
"And if her mother wants her back, she can come speak to me. And my lawyers. I will need proof that she's actually functional again before I am willing to return her."
The officer shrugged. "Fine with me," he said. The town of Juniper didn't pay a lot of attention to shanty town residents, and the Rosemonts were very well known.
"I can help you make her a present," Honoria said to Teddy, taking her grubby hand. "I know what she likes."
"You do? What does she like? Are you her daughter? Who's that boy? Is he her son? Are you going to read me a story? What are we making her?" Teddy was clearly starting to feel better again.
Arthur cleared his throat. He said to Nelda, "Before any of you drive anywhere, I'm going to check over all of your cars."
Chapter Fourteen
"We need to talk," Morgan said to Valerie as she sank down on his bed.
Teddy was downstairs with Nelda, soaking in a giant hot bath full of bubbles. Once she'd thawed out, she hadn't stopped talking the whole way back, according to Honoria, who'd ridden with her mother on the drive back to Morgan's house.
"Don't you need to get to work? You just spent your whole morning dealing with the Teddy crisis," she said, flopping back against the pillows.
"Screw work," he said.
Valerie turned to look at him in shock.
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" She pressed her hand against her forehead. "I think I have a concussion. I could have sworn that I heard you say ‘screw work'."
"Screw. Work. Work can go fuck itself. You are my sole concern."
"Actually, I think it's you who has the concussion. Can shifters get concussions?"
He looked her in the eye. "Valerie, I know I've been a total dick since we got back from our time in the woods."
She nodded. "No argument there."
"You could argue a little," he suggested.
She shook her head. "Nope. Carry on. Would you like to insult yourself some more, or shall I help you?"
He sat down next to her on the bed. "Honoria called me to tell me you guys had been in an accident, but she didn't tell me whether you'd been hurt, and then she hung up and wouldn't answer my phone calls when I was driving. I suspect she did that on purpose. That was the longest ten minutes of my life. It was ten minutes that lasted decades, ten minutes when I thought I'd lost you and you'd never know how I feel about you."
He looked at her reproachfully.
"You didn't answer your phone either."
"I left my purse in the car. I was kind of in shock. I would have answered if I'd known you were calling," Valerie said. She sat up. "Wait, how do you feel about me?"
"I'm crazy about you. I can't stop thinking about you. When you're not with me, I imagine that you're there. When I do something stupid, I think about what you'd say to me, and it makes me want to do better. When I do something smart, I think about what you'd say, and it makes me feel warm all over."
She felt her heart speed up in her chest, and her breath caught in her throat. "It does?"
He seized her hand and squeezed it. "The way I've been acting since we got back … "
She put her hand over his and met his intense gaze. "I understand that this time of year is hard for you. Honoria told me about your father."
He drew in a sharp breath and looked away.
"I'm sorry about what happened to you back then," she said quietly. "It was terrible. It's an enormous burden to carry all by yourself." She put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm here for you, Morgan. You don't have to carry that burden alone."
He looked away, staring out the window into nothingness. "When my mother lost my father … it nearly killed her. She was lost to all of us, for years. It was terrifying, Valerie. You know what's just as terrifying? The thought that I could love someone as much as she loved him, and lose that person. What if it destroyed me like it did her, and I couldn't take care of the pack anymore?"
"You're not her. You wouldn't let that happen. And you've been letting this fear dictate your life, make you live in this protective bubble. Working from the minute you get up 'til the minute you fall asleep, shutting away all your feelings. But that's not really living, Morgan."
He looked at her again, and this time she saw the deep, dark depths of pain that he'd lived with. "When we were in the woods, I felt as if we were melting together. Fitting together like two pieces of a puzzle. I felt as if I couldn't live without you. And it scared the hell out of me. That's why I've been pulling away. And if it hurt you, I'm so sorry."
"Of course it hurt me, you jerk." Tears filled her eyes.
"Do you want to smack me upside the head or something?" he offered.
"Kind of," she sniffled, "but it would just hurt my hand and you probably wouldn't even feel it. Because you're so damn hard-headed."
He gave a brief laugh, his face softening in a way that was unfamiliar, and Valerie realized that the arrogance she had always seen in his features hadn't been that at all. It had been pain. Fear of failing the people he loved; the people he felt responsible for. And maybe she could help him to let that fear go.
Then his expression turned serious again and he bent down and kissed her hard, passionately. His arms locked around her in a possessive embrace that left her short of breath – or maybe that was the way he was claiming her mouth, his lips firm and warm against hers.
She clung to him, drinking in the masculine scent of his skin and the taste of his mouth, butterflies fluttering inside her with every touch of his lips, every tilt of his head.
He tore his mouth away with obvious reluctance and looked deeply into her eyes. His pupils were dark, fathomless pools of desire, and she felt like she was tumbling into them. She never wanted to stop falling.
"I don't want you to leave," he said. "This isn't just a mating of convenience. I want you to stay with me forever. I want you with me, wherever I go. Will you do that?" The muscles of his arms were almost trembling with tension beneath her palms.
"Of course I will, you big, stupid wolf," she said, eyes burning as tears ran down her cheeks. "I love you."
"Oh, thank God," he said on a long breath of relief. "I love you too. I was afraid that I was too much of a rude, stupid ass and you were going to leave me forever."
"You are definitely too much of a rude, stupid ass, but you're my ass. I love your ass."
His smile was one hundred percent masculine smugness as he pressed her back onto the bed. "I do have a really sexy ass," he agreed.